The following letter was sent Sept. 30 as an official comment from Patagonia. 

The Honorable Brooke Rollins
Secretary of Agriculture
U.S. Department of Agriculture
1400 Independence Ave, SW.
Washington, D.C., 20250 

The Honorable Tom Schultz
Chief
U.S. Forest Service
201 14th St. SW
Washington, D.C., 20250

RE: Comments on the Draft Environmental Impact Statement for Rescission of the 2001 Roadless Rule — Outdoor Business Opposition and Support for Alternative 1

Dear Secretary Rollins and Chief Schultz: 

Patagonia is a U.S.-based outdoor apparel company with a 50-year history of environmental activism. We believe deeply in the urgent, shared responsibility to protect our natural resources. The future of our business, the outdoor recreation economy and our planet relies on the health of wild places, including inventoried roadless areas.

 We write in strong opposition to the U.S. Department of Agriculture's (USDA) proposal to rescind the 2001 Roadless Rule. We urge USDA to select Alternative 1, the No Action alternative in the Draft Environmental Impact Statement (DEIS) for the final rule. As a company whose livelihood depends directly on the conservation of, and access to, America's national forests, we believe both Alternatives 2 and 3 will cause real, lasting harm to our business, the gateway communities in which we operate and the customers we serve.

 Since its inception, the Roadless Rule has helped safeguard 58.5 million acres of wild national forest – areas that supply clean water, support wildlife habitat and biodiversity, provide important climate and watershed benefits, and offer unparalleled outdoor recreation experiences. National Forest System lands alone draw an estimated 159 million visits annually, generating substantial economic activity and employment for the rural and gateway communities surrounding them.[1]

 Roadless areas are foundational to our nation's powerful and growing outdoor economy. Recreation on public lands, much of it centered on backcountry experiences, anchors a $1.3 trillion national outdoor recreation economy that supports 5.2 million American jobs. Opening these lands to road construction, reconstruction, industrial-scale logging and other extraction risks disrupting sustainable, dependable income streams from recreation and tourism that gateway communities and businesses depend on.[2] Protection of inventoried roadless areas does not mean prohibiting land from generating monetary value. It is instead stewarding vital sources of income for families and communities across the country, many of whom may have suffered the effects of boom-and-bust extractive industry before.

 The Roadless Rule has proven to be one of the most consistently popular federal land-management policies in the nation's history. A February 2026 national poll found 76 percent of likely voters support keeping the Roadless Rule intact.[3] To disregard overwhelming support for the rule undermines the very ideals our nation's public lands are founded upon. The voices expressing support for the 2001 Roadless Rule represent not only a broad swath of Americans across the country, but also the customers, employees, and communities of outdoor businesses like ours. We believe it is our responsibility to represent the interests and desires of our community to retain this rule in its entirety.

 Additionally, the 2001 rule has endured for nearly 25 years because it has delivered stability, predictability, and broad bipartisan backing across the country. That certainty has helped businesses like ours invest in gateway communities and build lasting partnerships. Undoing the rule now would create unnecessary ambiguity about the management of the landscapes our customers and business depend upon, while eroding the regulatory consistency that supports long-term investment decisions.

 Patagonia respectfully urges USDA to select Alternative 1, the No Action alternative and retain the 2001 Roadless Rule in its entirety. Outdoor businesses, gateway communities, and recreationists have built livelihoods and traditions around the durability of this protection across millions of acres of forests. We ask the agency to respect the overwhelming wishes of the public and prioritize long-term economic stability for businesses and communities: retain the rule.

Thank you for considering our comments. 

Respectfully submitted,

Ryan Gellert
CEO
Patagonia, Inc.

[1] The Pew Charitable Trusts, "An Update on the 'Roadless Rule,'" Feb. 18, 2026 https://www.pew.org/en/research-and-analysis/articles/2026/02/18/an-update-on-the-roadless-rule

[2] Outdoor News, "Trump administration moves to end roadless rule on national forests," Aug. 2026 (statement of Devin O'Dea, Backcountry Hunters & Anglers) https://www.outdoornews.com/2026/08/18/trump-administration-moves-to-end-roadless-rule-on-national-forests/

[3] Defenders of Wildlife, "Trump Administration Advances Roadless Rule Repeal at the Expense of Wildlife, Clean Water and Public Will," press release, Aug. 2026 (citing Feb. 2026 Susquehanna Polling and Research national poll) https://defenders.org/newsroom/trump-administration-advances-roadless-rule-repeal-expense-of-wildlife-clean-water-and